For those that fear coming to Australia!

[monkeysarefun]

8 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Shooting police officers in cold blood, is not a 'normal' state of affairs in Australia. At that stage, they were doing nothing more than walking up the driveway.

 

 

There did seem to be a spate of them in the 80's and  90's (and even the 1870's in the case of  the  ambush of the police by the Kelly gang at Stringybark Creek), though perhaps they are memorable because there are  comparatively so  few of them.

 

In Melbourne there was the 1986 bombing of the police headquarters in  Russell Street  and the shooting murders of  Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Moorabbin, on 16 August 1998.

 

In NSW I recall the shooting of Senior Constables Robert Spears and Peter Addison who were dispatched to a house in  Crescent Head following reports of a domestic-related incident. Upon arrival  the senior constables were ambushed by a gunman, armed with a high-powered Ruger hunting rifle and both were shot dead.

 

It was this event that led to upgrades in NSW police equipment including the provisioning of bulletproof vests in patrol cars and the replacement of the standard issue Smith and Wesson .38 revolver with the Glock semi-automatic pistol.

 

Fortunately the introduction of gun laws in 1996 that limited what weapons were available to the community seems to have stabilised the arms race between the police and the gun-carrying population, unlike the US where police now routinely need to be armed with semi-automatic rifles when responding to situations.

Edited July 27 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

17 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

unlike the US where police now routinely need to be armed with semi-automatic rifles when responding to situations

I shared recently in a different spot how used police side-arms are sold on the second-hand market in the US. These weapons are often subsequently used to commit armed crimes. 

 

When a police officer responds to a situation where someone is holed up with a semi-automatic rifle, then similar equipment is necessary. A year ago in suburban Portland metro, a Deputy Sheriff was shot with a rifle round while trying to deliver an eviction notice.

 

Arms reduction in Australia is the only thing that reduces the likelihood of this sort of thing.

[Ozexpatriate]

Is this being reported in Oz?

 

CNN (video): Life imitating art? 93-year-old media mogul in legal battle with 3 of his kids

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Arms reduction in Australia is the only thing that reduces the likelihood of this sort of thing.

 

No doubt.

Mass killings were starting to feature here in the 80's and 90's, the Strathfield Plaza shootings in Sydney in 1991 where 7 people were killed comes instantly to mind. 

 

Its an awful thing to think but chances are that was the Port Arthur tragedy not so inconceivably awful and the death toll not so high then the chances are that nothing would have been done about guns and we'd be in the boiling frog situation the US is in.

 

The one big difference between here and there that did  help us is that we have no easily cynically misinterpreted passage in our constitution that says we must be able to own all the guns we want  because they said they could bear arms in 1776 or whatever. 

 

Lacking that, when it came to passing gun laws here the only possible valid opposition was by those like hunters and farmers who put in various usage cases -  they needed to shoot wild dogs and pigs that were attacking stock and so on.

 

Since the gun laws included provisions for this kind of usage then most opposition was shown  to be emotional rather than practical.

 

Edited July 27 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Is this being reported in Oz?

 

CNN (video): Life imitating art? 93-year-old media mogul in legal battle with 3 of his kids

 

 

Not at the moment because we are currently Winning The Olympics!

Edited July 27 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Is this being reported in Oz?

 

CNN (video): Life imitating art? 93-year-old media mogul in legal battle with 3 of his kids

It's all over the news here  in the UK.

[J. S. Bach]

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 ...snip...  a Queenslander had this built - in Kentucky.

A couple of my church members have visited that and liked it.

 

And here I thought that you were referring to this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Down_Under

They do not say anything about spiders, though!

 

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Is this being reported in Oz?

 

CNN (video): Life imitating art? 93-year-old media mogul in legal battle with 3 of his kids

It is - but I'd characterise it as "Three jealous siblings in legal battle with each other and their 93-year-old media mogul father". Probably wouldn't sell as many papers though.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

It is - but I'd characterise it as "Three jealous siblings in legal battle with each other and their 93-year-old media mogul father". Probably wouldn't sell as many papers though.

I'd characterize it as reneging on an "irrevocable trust".

[kevinlms]

12 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Is this being reported in Oz?

 

CNN (video): Life imitating art? 93-year-old media mogul in legal battle with 3 of his kids

Yes but who cares, the family has plenty of money to spend on lawyers. Besides didn't Murdoch cough up close to $1billion, because he didn't want some of his other business 'procedures' to be exposed to a court?

[kevinlms]

10 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

The one big difference between here and there that did  help us is that we have no easily cynically misinterpreted passage in our constitution that says we must be able to own all the guns we want  because they said they could bear arms in 1776 or whatever. 

 

But as always, Americans conveniently forget that the 2nd Amendment, is exactly that and if those who talk about 'returning to the original constitution' (which effectively means that of after the 2nd), were serious, they would lose it!

[kevinlms]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

It's all over the news here  in the UK.

Of course it will, because a significant portion of his empire is based in the UK.

[kevinlms]

15 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

No differently to the US there are armed nutters in Australia - just fewer of them.

 

And significantly less pro-rata than the US. Which is why the number of deaths by shooting is vastly more in the US, than any other western country. Unless you have statistics which show otherwise?

[kevinlms]

15 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It probably gave them more 'latitude' in their investigation - special rules.

I have absolutely no problem with that, why should I? They chose to shoot police, the police hadn't fired first, they were merely walking up the driveway.

[kevinlms]

For vastly better news in Australia, we have this!

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-28/puffing-billy-railway-feet-dangling-tourist-train/104152338

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, kevinlms said:

But as always, Americans conveniently forget that the 2nd Amendment, is exactly that and if those who talk about 'returning to the original constitution' (which effectively means that of after the 2nd), were serious, they would lose it!

Nonsense. The Bill of Rights was deliberately postponed from the original Constitutional Convention - so that the focus of the framers would be on the structure of government - not the enumeration of rights, intentionally deferring a 'sideshow' debate.

 

The only enumerated right of individuals in the Constitution was that of Habeus Corpus. The Constitution was ratified by the States in 1788. The Bill of Rights was enacted by the first Congress in 1789 and was ratified by the States in 1791. The first ten amendments are considered part of the "original" Constitution.

 

@monkeysarefun's reference to "cynically misinterpreted passage" refers to the SCOTUS opinion authored by the late Justice Antonin Scalia in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, where the majority found:

Quote

Private citizens have the right under the Second Amendment to possess an ordinary type of weapon and use it for lawful, historically established situations such as self-defense in a home, even when there is no relationship to a local militia.

 

Amendments not included in the Bill of Rights start with the Eleventh Amendment (1794).

 

Edited July 28 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, kevinlms said:

And significantly less pro-rata than the US. Which is why the number of deaths by shooting is vastly more in the US, than any other western country. Unless you have statistics which show otherwise?

Per capita gun violence in Australia is far less than per capita gun violence in the US.  But it is not zero.

 

As an Australian I am very proud of what the Howard government did after Port Arthur. It has made a huge difference.

 

After the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, Congress passed the Brady Bill, and later (in 1994) the "Federal Assault Weapons Ban" with a ten-year expiration (to get it passed). Sadly the latter expired and was not renewed.

 

It's also worth noting that around half of gun deaths in the US are suicides. Were gun ownership higher in Australia this would be reflected in Australian statistics as well. (Australia 12.3* / US 14.0*)

 

* Per 100,000.

 

Gun homicides per 100,000 (most recent year) are:

US: 4.054

New Zealand: 1.230

Canada: 0.889

Australia: 0.103
UK: 0.047

 

Jamaica is a staggering 44.7.

 

Total gun deaths in Australia is 0.88 - most of the difference being suicides (0.72). Australian gun owners kill themselves ~6x as much as someone else.

 

Edited July 28 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

Information on the Second Amendment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[kevinlms]

Never mind

Edited July 29 by kevinlms

[kevinlms]

Do you know anyone who took up this offer in 1966 and migrated?

[JZ]

24 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

Do you know anyone who took up this offer in 1966 and migrated?

My cousin went over as a 'Ten pound pom' in 1962 after finishing his engineering apprenticeship at Westinghouse in Chippenham. He got a job at an engineering company in Parramatta.

[monkeysarefun]

I'm friends with a bloke who came out here in 1971 from Germany. His first couple of months sounds like something out of "They're A Weird Mob" when it came to learning Australianness.

 

After a couple of months in a Nissan hut in the Migrant Hostel  in Matraville he moved into a share house with 5 Australian blokes and a cockatoo  who he'd got to know once he got himself a job. (the blokes, not the cockatoo)

 

They spent their time thinking up tricks to play on him. The ones he remembers in particular which caused him issues  were language based, for example  when they told him that while "mate" is a term of endearment here, an even greater mark of respect was to call whoever you were talking to     c**t. 

 

 As in  "Thanks for the directions, c**t!" , "A schooner of beer please, c**t" and so on. 

Edited August 1 by monkeysarefun

[kevinlms]

20 minutes ago, JZ said:

My cousin went over as a 'Ten pound pom' in 1962 after finishing his engineering apprenticeship at Westinghouse in Chippenham. He got a job at an engineering company in Parramatta.

I came for free in 1972. Under 18s (maybe 16s) didn't pay, so only my parents had to pay.

[monkeysarefun]

8 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

I came for free in 1972. Under 18s (maybe 16s) didn't pay, so only my parents had to pay.

 

 

By ship or did you fly?

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

By ship or did you fly?

RHMS Ellinis